If You Say So

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

The other day during lunch period I was watching a couple playfully tease one another. It was cute banter and made those who were watching smile or chuckle. They seemed to be enjoying one another's verbal slights, laughing each time one or the other said something. Of course, those of us who are older and wiser know that such playfulness, if allowed to go on for too long, will eventually turn into something not intended.

I could see the look in the young girl's eye as her boyfriend said something she didn't like, something that cut a little too close to being a hurtful truth perhaps. (I couldn't really hear what they were saying as I was across the room.) The girl's face changed from playful to upset and she walked away. Her boyfriend called her back, apologizing about whatever he said and followed her as she walked towards where I was standing.

As they got closer to me she stopped and held up a marker she had taken from a nearby table top and uttered the words, "Stop following me or I'll throw this at you." His response - "Go ahead, I don't think you will."

I spent the next few minutes of my day settling down what very quickly became a mean-spirited, verbally abusive fight.

When I had calmed them both down I asked them to tell me what happened. The boy said they were just playing around when suddenly she just got mad at him. The girl said she felt like he was putting her down and got tired of defending herself. I asked them how the whole thing started and they both said they didn't know.

It's funny to me (yes the haha funny) when people often harm each other without knowing how the whole thing started. The truth is, to me at least, that if people held a certain amount of respect for one another, doing their best to "tune in" to what others are feeling or going through, maybe less of these types of hurtful situations would arise.

I might be simplifying things a little, but I think Paul was trying to convey the same message to the church in Corinth.

Paul is speaking to a concern about eating rituals. The way of Jesus was new, so it must follow that Christianity was new as well. The crossover between Judaism and Christianity was new and confusing, and I have to think that there were those who still believed that the Mosaic rules were still the only way to live as God intended.

Nothing could be further from the truth for the followers of the new way; the way of Jesus the Christ. To these people it wasn't about following a strict set of rules, rather it was about living a new way of life which invited people to come into the church just as they were. Therein lay the division: to follow the rules or to throw the rules out the window.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that it isn't about rules, or lack thereof. Instead it's about respecting what others feel and think. If there are those who don't want to eat meat, don't put them down or force them to eat meat or put them in a situation where they feel obligated to eat meat. By the same token, if someone wants to eat meat don't put them in a situation where they feel guilty for doing so.

Paul's hope for the new church, and to an extension our hope for today's church, was that they would find a way to live with each other in full acceptance of one another's differences, not allowing their differences to become a stumbling block to developing relationships, but that the differences would help them to grow deeper into their relationships. In other words, to fully accept one another as the people they were, regardless of where along their life's journey they had found one another.

When relationships are new it takes a lot of communication to figure out how to respect one another's feelings and thoughts. So it was with our young couple, and so it is within our churches.

A Light To Be Shared By All

Ephesians 3:1-12

While contemplating today's passage I remembered the recent death of Nelson Mandela and the hundreds of thousands who viewed his body as it lay in state. Some estimates say that for 3 days more than 2000 people per hour viewed his body before going to his final resting place. What made the viewing more special, at least to me, was that it took place in the same place where Mr. Mandela was sworn in as South Africa's first black president just 19 years earlier.

Mr. Mandela was the unifying force for his country, finding ways to bring people from polar opposite ends of a racial-privileged spectrum together for the betterment of the country as a whole. That unification didn't come easy as many of those who enjoyed the wealth of privilege weren't willing to give up their socioeconomic standings. But, with perseverance and a peaceful approach Mr. Mandela was able to bring an end to apartheid in his country.

For the first time in a very long time the people of South Africa had the same chances at achieving happiness for their lives; whatever that happiness would be for them. Such is what Paul tried to do for the people of his time as well.

Today, Christians around the world celebrate the Epiphany, or when the magi proclaimed that the Christ has been born to bring the light of God to all people - all people. Paul's message to the church in Ephesus reminds us that "the Gentiles would be coheirs and parts of the same body, and that they would share with the Jews in the promises of God in Christ Jesus through the gospel." It is also a reminder that "God’s purpose is now to show the rulers and powers in the heavens the many different varieties of his wisdom through the church."

Paul, through his personal revelation of Jesus Christ's purpose on earth, is trying his best to unify all people under one love through the revelation that through Jesus Christ we can finally see that we are all parts of the same body and that by strengthening ourselves through our diversities and finding a way to work together we, the church, can help others achieve the happiness in life they desperately seek.

God's light shines in all living things. Let's work together to help that light shine bright for all the world to see.